The Baha'i Studies Listserv On 28 Oct 2010 at 11:09, Stephen Gray wrote: > Is it oppresive to have a > state religion in and of itself or to legislate morality?
An established state religion is not in itself oppressive: it depends entirely on the terms of the establishment. What duties are required of the established religious organisation? What privileges or funding does it get? Is there a public interest argument for the balance of duties and privileges? Are there other established religions in the state, or reasonable candidates for establishment, and if so, is the established one or ones fairly selected on public interest criteria? Does the establishment impose any duties on the population as citizens, which they have not accepted freely as believers? Is the establishment coupled with laws which infringe on human rights (eg blasphemy laws that infringe on free speech). Under the right conditions, an establishment agreement has the virtue of removing religion as an issue from the short-term political agenda. Where there is no establishment, the vagaries of both political life and religious life will periodically tempt politicians to play the religion card for electoral purposes. Sen ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Sen McGlinn http://senmcglinn.wordpress.com All is to be yielded up, save only the *remembrance* of God; all is to be dispraised, except His praise. Today, to this melody of the Company on high, the world will leap and dance: `Glory be to my Lord, the All-Glorious!' (Selections from the Writings of `Abdu'l-Baha, p. 93) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -- __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-536086-27401.54f46e81b66496c9909bcdc2f7987...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to [email protected] Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:[email protected] Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
